ICICI Bank rallies nearly 2% on stake sale plan in insurance arm

NEW DELHI: ICICI Bank Ltd rallied as much as 1.76 per cent in trade on Thursday, after media reports suggested that the private sector lender is in talks to sell part of its stake in a life insurance joint venture to Temasek Holdings Pte and Carmignac Gestion for about $300 million.

At 09:40 a.m.; ICICI Bank pared some of the morning gains but was still trading 0.9 per cent higher at Rs 335.90. It hit a low of Rs 335.40 and a high of Rs 338.70 in trade today.

ICICI owns 74 percent of the joint venture, with the remaining 26 percent held by UK insurer Prudential.

The lender plans to complete an agreement to sell about 5 percent of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. by the end of March, the report said, citing unnamed sources.